Free Republic

Abdul El-Sayed is having a terrible home stretch in the Michigan Senate race, digging himself deeper on a daily basis. And for whatever reason, he just can't seem to put the shovel down. First, he refused to condemn a blatantly antisemitic ad supporting his campaign. That was too much for Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), his former primary opponent, who had endorsed him after their race. Stevens flipped and endorsed his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers. In the final days of the campaign, El-Sayed's candidacy is tearing the Democrat Party apart, and now he is stuck playing defense on antisemitism...

Synopsis Pentagon officials have requested several NATO countries to tone down their public statements regarding Russia's threat. These requests are primarily directed towards Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Concerns have arisen over comments suggesting Russia is cornered due to its stalled invasion of Ukraine. As the Trump administration seeks a negotiated end to the war, pressure is applied on Ukraine as well.

In brief: Britain announced more than £10 billion ($13.3 billion) in additional support for Ukraine, alongside £500 million ($665 million) in urgent air-defense assistance. The package includes £7 billion ($9.3 billion) in economic support over three years and £3 billion ($4 billion) in export-finance capacity.

26 October 2026 00:26 (UTC +04:00) Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Matteo Salvini will insist on ending aid to Ukraine at the next government meeting, APA reports. The politician announced this during a speech at the extraordinary congress of his League party, where he was overwhelmingly confirmed as national secretary. "If you confirm me as secretary at this congress, then I consider this a mandate to defend the League's position at the upcoming Council of Ministers meeting, which is that we can no longer send money and weapons to Ukraine," Salvini said

Wes Streeting’s remarks were made following the launch of a government campaign urging Brits to stock up with emergency supplies. British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting has said the country must be ready for war in 1,000 days, after the government advised citizens to stock up on essential supplies. Writing in the Telegraph over the weekend, Streeting warned that the UK’s enemies could be ready to launch an attack on the UK by 2030. He wrote: “Our adversaries’ willingness to harm us is not new. What has changed is their capacity. By 2030, their force strength and war economy could put...

SEOUL, South Korea — The U.S. military, citing unspecified “risks to our personnel,” on Monday banned electric vehicles manufactured by Chinese automaker BYD from Kadena, a key U.S. air base on Okinawa. “These vehicles present an unacceptable and unmitigable risk to our personnel and our mission,” spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Alli Stormer said, per Reuters. She did not say what specific concern had prompted the move against vehicles produced by BYD, the largest global supplier of EVs, but the firm had, in June, been put on a Pentagon black list of 188 Chinese companies. Japanese media speculated that the presence of...

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he was deciding whether to “make a deal” with Iran or “finish it off” as investors weigh heightened tensions across the Middle East. “Do I finish it off, which would be very easy to do, or do I make a deal? It’s getting to be decision time,” Trump said in a Fox News interview on Sunday. Mediators from Qatar, which has played a key role in efforts to negotiate an agreement between Washington and Tehran, visited Tehran on Sunday, per Reuters. It comes as attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants on Saudi Arabia continued over...

Story highlights Elon Musk said SpaceX restricted Starlink in Ukraine over its alleged use for offensive drone strikes, claiming the loophole had been closed and access restored. He warned that Ukraine’s frontline would “collapse immediately” if Starlink were switched off.

Although Putin might agree to some trade-offs in Ukraine as the quid pro quo for these deals, it’s not guaranteed, but they can still be clinched so long as Trump has the will to waive more sanctions without a ceasefire first. Putin’s top aide Yury Ushakov confirmed after Steve Witkoff’s latest meeting with Putin that “Other large-scale joint economic projects, which offer significant prospects for bilateral cooperation, were also discussed in detail; some of them are now nearing the implementation stage.” This followed Putin courting the return of US investment to Russia’s resource sector in early 2025 and Kirill Dmitriev...

Colossal Biosciences’ Ben Lamm and Anduril’s Palmer Luckey had an idea to genetically engineer war dogs for the U.S. military, law enforcement, and other emergency response teams. On Thursday, that idea came out of stealth as Warhound, backed by $200 million in funding from investors including Sequoia, 8VC, Corner Ventures, and In-Q-Tel, a venture firm backed by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. The round values the company at $1.2 billion. Warhound’s dogs, which do not exist yet, will take on tasks that are dangerous for humans or difficult for machines, such as bomb detection, searches, and other specialized...

US President Donald Trump renewed calls for a change in Ukraine’s leadership on Monday as his war of words with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued to intensify. “I think it’s time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine,” Trump stated in Washington DC following criticism from Zelenskyy over the US leader’s decision to ease sanctions pressure on Russia. These latest comments followed on from Trump’s recent accusation that Zelenskyy “doesn’t want to end this war,” and his suggestion that Ukraine should get a new president “who can make a deal.” Many of Trump’s most prominent supporters have backed...

Here’s one war that should’ve started years ago: Team Trump’s drive to stamp out fraud is still ramping up, but is already saving the public billions. This week alone, federal, state and local authorities conducted a string of fresh raids and made arrests, including in New York and California, as part of a nationwide crackdown on Medicaid fraud. Homeland Security also launched a massive operation to snare illegal immigrants who fraudulently stole $40 million in food stamps, bringing the total in food-stamp fraud ID’d so far to $641 million. The feds have also destroyed more than 2,200 illegal merchant SNAP...

Talks postponed to November — "30 nights of nightmare" for Kyiv 1:07 — 😱 The massive night strike on Kyiv begins 2:30 — 💀 Dozens of ballistic missiles — Ukraine can't intercept any 3:23 — 📊 Up to 22 missiles: 11 Iskander-M, 8 S-400 ballistic, 3 hypersonic 4:18 — 📈 210 drones, 181 intercepted — but silence on missile stats 4:49 — 🏭 Antonov plant, warehouses, storage facilities targeted 5:19 — 🌉 SOUTHERN BRIDGE hit — traffic jam, Dnipro crossing blocked 6:48 — 🏚️ Northwestern Kyiv warehouses and malls wiped out 7:19 — 🔄 First night since mid-October WITHOUT strikes...

Zelensky just blinked. President Trump has been pressing Kyiv to make a deal. On Tuesday he said it plainly: "We want Zelenskyy to make a deal." Now Zelensky is moving. On Fox News Wednesday he was asked if he'd accept freezing the war where the lines are now. "Yes, right now, we have to freeze," he said. He called it a "real way to end this war." After meeting Steve Witkoff in Oslo, he also says Ukraine will back new three-way talks with the U.S. and Russia, likely in November. It's not a peace deal yet. Zelensky still wants security...

Oil flows out of the Persian Gulf in October nearly returned to levels seen before the start of the Iran war, but traders remain wary about a fragile recovery. Total crude exports in the region, or flows coming out of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, recently recovered to within 10% of their previous levels in January and February, according to data compiled by TankerTrackers.com, a maritime intelligence firm tracking crude oil shipments (see chart below).

My decision on Russia is a very simple one. I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table. Great progress is being made, and that includes current hostage negotiations! Signing that document at this time will do that, and I can sign it later, or any time that I want! Perhaps more importantly, Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing, and I want to...

The roof collapsed onto lower floors as anti-government protests over cost of living entered their fourth week across France ... A historic building in the French town of Limoges, about three hours south of Paris, has been "largely lost" after it was set on fire by rioters as demonstrations continue across France. The Limoges Town Hall was built in 1883, and was made a historic landmark in 1975. "The roof has collapsed onto lower floors, except the west wing, and two-thirds of the exterior has already disappeared," ... Macron leaves office in six months. ... Masked groups also attempted to...

April 03, 2009, 2:00 p.m. Imperial Judiciary Goes GlobalBy the Editors In 2004, the Supreme Court sowed the seeds for a national-security upheaval when it ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that war prisoners held outside the United States had a right to challenge their detentions in federal court. Last year, in Boumediene v. Bush, the justices continued the seismic shift, holding that the right they had invented in Rasul — a right extended to aliens whose only connection to the United States is in waging war against it — was somehow rooted in our Constitution. Thursday, the inevitable earthquake...

A ship has been struck in the Strait of Hormuz nearly every day this month, according to the International Maritime Organization. Between Oct. 1 and Tuesday, nine ships – mostly crude oil tankers – were struck in the Strait of Hormuz or off the coast of Oman, according to the IMO. Two additional ships were hit since, with one struck on Wednesday and another struck on Friday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. Wednesday’s attack was on an unnamed tanker off the coast of Madinat ash Shamal, Qatar, in the Persian Gulf. Friday’s attack was on an unnamed...

In 2019, Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security simulated a potential nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia. In one series of escalatory exchanges, the United States expended between 930 and 1,080 nuclear warheads.1 These simulated figures represent 65–76 percent of U.S. strategic warheads deployed on missiles and bombers as of March 2023.2 With limited remaining warheads and a degraded NC3 network, could the United States effectively deter China in the aftermath?In a 2024 report to Congress, DoD updated its estimate of China’s stockpile of nuclear weapons to more than 600 operational warheads.4 If this trajectory continues,...